


not surprised

by jayhood



Category: Titans (TV 2018)
Genre: Asexual Jason Todd, Gen, Insecurity, Manipulation, Messed up views on sex and intimacy, canon compliant up to 2.12
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23318830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayhood/pseuds/jayhood
Summary: The only people the truth sets free are the people around you.People just wait for an excuse, and they always leave.
Relationships: Jason Todd & Rose Wilson, Jason Todd/Rose Wilson
Comments: 1
Kudos: 46





	not surprised

Jason meant what he said to Dick, on the roof. He was poison. In turn, Dick told him all about how he got a kid killed. Dick told all of them. What a dumbass. The only people the truth sets free, are the people around you. You show them how you really are and they are free. Free to hit you because that’s what you deserve. Free to get high because they just can’t deal with you. Free to send you back in the system because they did not sign up to raise no queer. Free to bench you because. Because.

Free to leave, all in all. People just wait for an excuse, and they always leave.

Rose leaves, too, and Jason leaves with her.

***

She’s pretty. Jason can’t really handle himself around pretty girls (who don’t know or care who his ‘dad’ is) because, he’s pretty sure, they feel there’s something off about him. It’s not what he’s not interested, necessary, he is plenty interested. Not in the thing he should be, though. Not in them. He’s interested in - he read books, okay. From Jane Austen to trashy romance paperbacks, they all about one thing. Being so important to someone, they don’t ever leave. He’s interested in that. So he comes a little too strong. It seems fake to girls, or too desperate. So he tries to be cool. Then, he seems too callous or not interested at all, just being an asshole. It never works out when he flirts, and there’s nothing to work out if he doesn’t.

The only, you know, real experience he has is if he has to work someone for a case. There was a high school drug distribution ring he busted, and that thing with the Mayor’s aid, and he’s sure he could have gone undercover in Faceless Society and made himself get noticed by the boss in no time, if not the - the thing he does not think about. The thing that made him end up in San Francisco while Bruce is off in Europe, or Africa, or at another planet, who knows, not Jason.

It’s just easier when it’s for a case. Even if stakes are higher, it’s nothing personal usually (except that thing he does not think about).

So he treats Rose as his case, which she would hate if knew, but he  _ really _ likes her so she won’t. It works, he thinks. Better than he figured it would on someone as cool as her.

He says pretty and meaningless things, he offers  _ fun _ , he touches her wrist  _ just right _ , he looks up at her, Rose standing still and him on the floor between her legs, and looks down again… Rose grips him by the chin.

Yeah, it gets them all, all the time.

He doesn’t really understand why it works, he thinks,  _ during _ . It would not have worked on him, would it? He probably would have pretended it did. He’s good at pretending things work on him. It’s a useful talent in their line of work. Bruce does it all the time, Jason’s pretty sure. Except not with Selina, maybe. It feels like whatever she’s doing really works. And now he made it weird. Thinking about Bruce while Jason is with Rose. It happens more often than you’d think, though. Jason can’t help but let his mind wander. He, let’s face it, is good at getting it but, apparently, not so brilliant delivering. People moan and everything, their breath is heavy and fast, but it almost never is over under a reasonable timeframe. Say, three minutes. He cannot be focused for more than that, he found (the whole thing is so mind-bogglingly boring), so he lets his hands wander. Sometimes it helps. But coordinating all of that is harder than any fight. So it takes people even longer to get off. So it makes him even more bored.

So he thinks about stuff he’s pretty sure he’s not supposed to. Like: Batman fucking Catwoman because he wants to, how crazy is that. His leg’s cramping, ugh, they need to move it to that chair-looking thingy. Oh, fuck, when it’s supposed to end? He thought he almost done it, Rose seemed like she’s almost there, he fucked up, he needs to go harder.

Most importantly, he thinks he should not have started. Rose will think he’s a loser and leave.

Maybe he should not have? But what else he got to offer. He doesn’t have money. And they could not be friends, 'cause Jason Todd does not have friends. And Rose, who could kick his ass, Dick’s ass, probably even Deathstroke’s ass if she’s still alive with him after her. Rose, who dances like it’s the easiest thing in the world. Rose, who’s prettier than anyone you got to see on TV. Who sharp as nail and confident as all hells. Rose could be friends with anybody if she wanted. She doesn’t. Why would she want to be friends with Jason?

But she went to Jason’s room that one time, didn’t she? Why would she, if not because she wanted to befriend Jason?

But wait, she kissed him.

But wait, he was not seducing her yet, then.

Oh fuck, Jason thinks. He knows what is it about.

But the next day, Rose tries to pick up a fight. It doesn’t make sense, tactically, if she was sent by Deathstroke. You honey-potted someone, you don’t leave until after you get something out of it. And Jason doesn’t have anything to give to her except the knowledge of whose vacation houses are empty currently (they are, for example, at Johnny Poodles’s, he’s still waiting for trial), and which crack dens need to be cleared (like the one yesterday, the guy running the place is familiar to Jason from another life).

So maybe, Rose is being sincere? And he sucks at sex with girls, obviously.

But then she asks him to show “the real him”, it suddenly clicks. It’s a recruitment route. That’s why Deathstroke didn’t try anything himself (except to kill him to fuck with Dick’s head). It always supposed to be Rose's job.

Huh.

Jason mixes some truths and some lies. He takes her to the school he worked the drug ring case in and calls it home. Rose calls him a nerd. He trows 'thespian’ around even though he’s pretty sure none of the theatre nerds did use the term but hopefully it made him look like he knows his ass from his elbow. He rounds up with a song which he thinks is a nice touch (and also one of a few he actually knows lyrics for, if we’re talking about musicals).

It works.

And that night, Jason sees her calling in, reporting to Deathstroke. She disposes of the phone by throwing it into the water, probably so he could not find out Deathstroke’s phone number by accident.

It’s okay, though. He can trace the call by hacking into cell towers. It will take time without Batcomputer but.

He’s gonna find Deathstroke. They’re going to finish what Dick started.


End file.
